2006-09-12 11:48:29 · 7 answers · asked by shawfam2 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
It's just a gravity thing.
Some clouds of gas don't even have enough gravity to pull together, or if they do, they just stay a clump of gas. These are nebulae.
Some have enough mass that the force of gravity and friction can create conditions favourable to fusion of hydrogen into helium. Welcome to star country.
But no star has a limitless supply of hydrogen. Eventually it runs out or is outcompeted by other atoms that get in the way. Then either fusion stops and the star explodes in a huge nova OR if there's enough mass it moves onto something heavier to fuse.
And so on and so on. Some stars, however, have TRULY massive gravities, and so they can start to do things really bizarre when they run out of normal fuel:
Neutron stars have enough gravity to force electrons and protons together... effectively making the star one single atomic nucleus. This is no mean feat, when you consider that the electric force is some 10^36 times more powerful than the gravitic force. A neuton star is also so small as to be practically invisible in stellar terms - if our sun were a neutron star, it would be the size of Manhattan Island instead 1.3 million times the size of Earth. Neutron stars also emit no light. But we can tell the're there because they still exert the influence of gravity and they're so pifflingly small in size.
Black holes are larger yet. A black hole has so much mass that it can distort space around it in such a way that nothing gets out. Even a neutron star will flare up and emit light as it passes through a cloud of new hydrogen as it fuses and rips the atoms to shreds. A black hole will not... things that hit a black hole just seem to disappear.
Thus we have a distinction between black holes and neutron stars. And we HAVE observed things that MUST be black holes, based on this difference. There are also any number of things that MAY be black holes around, but because they are surrounded by so much clutter or because our angle to them is not exactly right, we can't be sure if they are or are not.
Likewise, because black holes and neutron stars (as well is burned out husks of former stars called brown dwarfs) emit no light, it's difficult to be sure exactly how many of them are around, but not near enough to anything else to give signs of their presence.
Hope that helps!
2006-09-12 12:09:45 · answer #1 · answered by Doctor Why 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No one knows for sure. This gravity well thing is the most popular view.
They don't even know if one exists.
It's all theoretical Cosmology mumbo jumbo
They have some anomoly they can't explain, so they give a title to it.
The newst mumbo jumbo is dark matter, which is a title they place on a region of space that is much darker than the surrounding area.
I was amazed to find they are still considering the "ether" is a viable reality.
The space between us and the sun or us and Alpha Centari is not a void, but filled with this stuff they call the "ether"
It was originally created to explain light wave propegation.
But, if, indeed, gravity wells warp space, then there has to be some make up or "ether" to space. You can't warp nothing.
Warping space means it bunches up and the X,Y,Z grid warps near the gravity well.
This is indeed possible, but space, itself, is not warped. Only matter and energy that crosses into the event horizon of the gravity well.
It doesn't matter what the Ether is, it can simply be background radition (which is mass and energy)
Thus a black hole which is some type of particle, body or mass with gravity so intense that light rays can't escape. NOthing can escape.
It presents me with a paradox and quandary when I ponder General Relativity which says nothing can travel faster than light, hence gravity should not exceed light speed, otherwise the photon falls back faster than light speed.
A black hole by implication is an active mass. If it is not active then where are the photos of light coming from that can't escape.
We have yet to see a star being ripped apart by a black hole, which should suck the mass to the surface and block all light at that point.
This would be visible as spectral shift showing that the star is traveling in one direction but being pulled into a black hole in a transverse angle.
That is, of course, if all the laws of physics are true.
IF space is a true void then only matter, mass and energy within the limits of the field effect would be sucked in.
If the ether concept exists, then all this mass is getting sucked in and mass further out, beyond the field effect, is rushing into the void to fill itl.
That is the nature of the laws of phsysics.
If this is the case, little by little we are being herded towards the black hole and one day, in millions of years, we will get sucked in.
Some say this is how the Big Bang happened.
This giant vaccum cleaner sucked in all the matter and eventually reached such a critical mass it's own gravity well couldn't contain it.
In short, the bag burst.
This is all theorical cosmology mumbo jumbo, of course.
No one has seen a black hole or measured it.
2006-09-12 21:33:27 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The earth has a good amount of gravity - try to jump off & you can get a couple feet up at best.
Do the same on the moon, & you may get 10 ft or more, but on our sun [IF you could stand there] and you would not get 1/10 of an inch.
THrough all this, you can shine a flashlight to someone a million miles away & they will see the light.
On a black hole, not only can you not jump, you are pulled to the 'ground', flattened to a few atoms' high, and if the flashlight works, the gravity is so strong that even the light can't leave the surface.
2006-09-12 19:04:15 · answer #3 · answered by singbloger1953a 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A black hole is essentially a gravitational field that is so strong it pulls in even light.
Earths gravity keeps you on the ground...the gravity produced by a black hole is so strong, beyond a certain point you are erased from existance and converted into pure energy.
There is a giant black hole in the center of our galaxy, which like we revolve around the sun...the sun and other suns revolve around this black hole at about a million miles an hour.
2006-09-12 20:29:19 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
simply put a black hole is a colapsed star whose gravitational force is so powerful(due to its imense mass) that light itself cannot escape.
2006-09-12 22:12:06 · answer #5 · answered by llloki00001 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Someplace you really want to put a lot of real estate between yourself and it. Assuming you got the chance to get near one in the first place.
2006-09-12 18:58:04 · answer #6 · answered by vanamont7 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
What my girlfriend has between her legs
2006-09-15 22:27:17 · answer #7 · answered by T diddy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋